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Tuesday, January 31, 2017

My January wrap up consists of 5 books, which I'm really happy with. Work was really busy for a few weeks, and I didn't really have the energy to read much. I hope to continue reading about a book a week. If I don't get through a book within a week, I find I get bored with it, and tend to want to move on. I will have reviews on these books coming up on the blog.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

When I sat down to read Talking As Fast As I Can, I felt like I was sitting down talking to Lauren Graham. Her personality shines through and you feel like you're laughing along with her. She writes very much like how she speaks, and that familiarity wraps around the reader. Graham discusses her upbringing, being raised by her Father, her college years and her struggles with trying to "make it" in show business. She offers her advice and encourages readers to follow their dreams. She comes across as a very positive person, and someone who truly loves what she does.

This collection of essays was published at the same time as the revival was released on Netflix. I watched A Year In The Life and had some hit and misses with the show. Reading these essays, I had a new appreciation for the revival, and it made me want to watch it again. Gilmore Girls was a huge part of my life, and will always be a favorite show of mine. I really enjoyed the insight that Graham brought to the book.

This collection of essays reads very quickly and if you're a Lauren Graham fan or Gilmore Girl/Parenthood fan you will want to read this. I really appreciated the essays that Graham wrote, and I will continue to read any new releases that she put out there for us to read.

Monday, January 23, 2017

I purchased the Morphe X Kathleenlights palette from MorpheBrushes. I love the neutrals and the colours in this palette. When this palette restocked, I had to get it and I'm really happy that I picked it up. I love Morphe shadows and this palette is great. I also purchase Morphe brushes and some palettes from Orabel. They're a Canadian site and shipping is really fast.

This palette was purchased through BH Cosmetics and it came with their Essential Eye Brush set. Both the palette and brushes were great. This is another palette that I've really enjoyed so far. I'm not a makeup artist, I'm just a woman who loves doing her makeup in the morning and I love these neutral palettes

Thursday, January 12, 2017

This year I want to reread books that I loved, and will quickly say are "favorite" reads. I want to see if they still have the same impact, and the same adoration. These three books, I can picture myself where I was the first time I started reading them. I remember what time in my life it was, where I was living, where I was when I was reading them...White Oleander by Janet Fitch

Everywhere hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid, whose odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes--each its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, its own hard lessons to be learned--becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of self-discovery.The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath's shocking, realistic, and intensely emotional novel about a woman falling into the grip of insanity.

Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

I discovered Sarah Jio in 2016, and I'm really excited to see that she has a new release this year. I'll be picking pre-ordering this one.

Description:

From the New York Times bestselling author of Blackberry Winter and The Violets of March comes a gripping, poignant novel about the kind of love that never lets go, and the heart's capacity to remember.

While enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner with her fiance, Ryan, at one of Seattle's chicest restaurants, Kailey Crane can't believe her good fortune: She has a great job as a writer for the Herald and is now engaged to a guy who is perfect in nearly every way. As they leave the restaurant, Kailey spies a thin, bearded homeless man on the sidewalk. She approaches him to offer up her bag of leftovers, and is stunned when their eyes meet, then stricken to her very core: The man is the love of her life, Cade McAllister.

When Kailey met Cade ten years ago, their attraction was immediate and intense everything connected and felt "right." But it all ended suddenly, leaving Kailey devastated. Now the poor soul on the street is a faded version of her former beloved: His weathered and weary face is as handsome as Kailey remembers, but his mind has suffered in the intervening years. Over the next few weeks, Kailey helps Cade begin to piece his life together, something she initially keeps from Ryan. As she revisits her long-ago relationship, Kailey realizes that she must decide exactly what and whom she wants.

Alternating between the past and the present, Always is a beautifully unfolding exploration of a woman faced with an impossible choice, a woman who discovers what she's willing to save and what she will sacrifice for true love.Book Depository [Free Worldwide Shipping]

Monday, January 9, 2017

Going into Go Set A Watchman I didn’t have many
expectations, I had seen many mixed reviews. The book opens with Scout going to
visit her aging father. The first half of the book we see the same comfortable,
small town life that Scout is use to, but half way through Scout’s views start
to change. Scout realizes how much things have changed since she left. Atticus
isn’t the hero that she always thought him to be. Scout has been living in New
York, and her eyes have been opened. Her world has been expanded.

In TKAM, Atticus is the hero, where in GSAW, he’s the fallen
hero in Scout’s eyes. The dynamic between Scout and Atticus really change in
this book. In truth, I think Scout was very immature and didn’t give Atticus a
chance to explain his actions with the KKK meetings. It clearly states in the
book that he had an agenda. He always wanted to keep an eye on his enemies. He
wanted to know whose faces were under the hoods. I felt like Atticus was a
product of his time. I felt like he thought the blacks weren’t ready in terms
of education and leading. He wasn’t completely against it, he wanted what he
thought was best. When Scout asked Calpurnia if [she] hated them, and Calpurnia
hesitated, I felt like that spoke volumes about the times. I don’t doubt that
Calpurnia loved Scout and Jem but they lived during a divided time, and the
waters were murky.

The rewrite of GWAW into To Kill A Mockingbird was
fantastic. I didn’t feel like GSAT was really necessary. In my opinion this was
not a sequel, it was a first draft. It did feel like a rough draft, it felt
unorganized, and unedited. I loved that Scout was appalled that Atticus would
support segregation, it shows the growth in her and
in her generation. At the same time, I feel like she should have let Atticus
explain. There’s a new class in the South, and Scout will be the one to see it.
Atticus won’t be around to see the aftermath. I loved the childhood flashbacks
within the story, I felt like I saw TKAM peak through. The starting of a great
classic was hidden within those passages. I’m glad I read GSAW but I didn’t
love it.

Thursday, January 5, 2017

These are the books that I purchased in December. I read all of the Erin Watt books, and loved the series. I never read books in a series back to back, and I read all 3 of these over a few days. I'm currently reading The Girl in the Blue Coat and it will most likely be a 5 star rating. I've heard great things about The Nest, and when I saw it on sale, I added it to my cart. The Break is on the longlist for Canada Reads this year, and it was also on sale.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Amy Hatvany is one of my favorite writers and she has an upcoming book being released in March. I can't wait to read this one and for it to release. Her books are always so original, and thought provoking. This description is really intriguing and I'm really looking forward to this one.Description:

From master storyteller Amy Hatvany—whose writing has been hailed as “gripping and emotionally honest” (Stephanie Evanovich, New York Times betselling author)—comes a provocative and compelling novel about two friends whose lives are changed by a drunken kiss.

I want to rewind the clock, take back the night when the world shattered. I want to erase everything that went wrong.

Amber Bryant and Tyler Hicks have been best friends since they were teenagers—trusting and depending on each other through some of the darkest periods of their young lives. And while Amber has always felt that their relationship is strictly platonic, Tyler has long harbored the secret desire that they might one day become more than friends.

Returning home for the summer after her college graduation, Amber begins spending more time with Tyler than she has in years. Despite the fact that Amber is engaged to her college sweetheart, a flirtation begins to grow between them. One night, fueled by alcohol and concerns about whether she’s getting married too young, Amber kisses Tyler.

What happens next will change them forever.

In alternating points of view, It Happens All the Time examines the complexity of sexual dynamics between men and women and offers an incisive exploration of gender roles, expectations, and the ever-timely issue of consent.

This is a meme hosted by Breaking the Spine where every Wednesday bloggers highlight a book that they are eagerly anticipating the release of!

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

December was a good reading month, I read books that I really enjoyed. I tried reading a Christmas book but I wasn't feeling it and decided to move on. Go Set A Watchman was very interesting, and I'm glad I finally decided to read it. I really saw the book as a first draft, but I will have a review coming. Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham was a great read, especially after watching the revival on Netflix. She seems like a genuinely nice person, who enjoys what she does. My absolute favorites for this month were Paper Princess and Broken Prince. While these books take place in high school, this is not a young adult book. I consider these books New Adult. Both books left me wanting more and I had to continue the next books right away. I never read books in a series back to back, but I had to with these. They were really good, and I just finished the third book. Highly recommended.

My reading goals for January are to keep up the momentum with reading. Find books that I really enjoy, and make time to read them. When I don't make the time to read, it feels like I'm missing something.

I've also been watching This is Us and I'm loving the show. I'm only about 5 episodes in, but I thoroughly enjoy each episode. I heard good things and decided to give it a chance, and I'm so glad that I did. I don't take the time to watch shows or movies very much, but I would like to change this.